Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve often heard that addictions can be best described as the insatiable thirst that can never be satisfied. Some folks struggling with addictions tell me it’s a lifetime struggle.

It is a long struggle. Certainly one that must always be fought, but never be fought alone, even when one’s friends and family may be frustrated watching this. Addictions isn’t an individual problem; it’s a community problem that we all need to help and we must remind ourselves that addictions is a fight worth fighting.

Let me remind this House that everyone who is affected, be it friends, be...

No, I’m good. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s my understanding that we are approaching the conclusion of the department. Have we reached that point yet?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to speak to a personal circumstance. I had a summer student one year that was overpaid by accident by the machinery of government. The fact is, it was just a small accident and it wasn’t even a lot of money, but what was interesting is the collection agency was sent immediately. They sent the leg breakers there to pursue this over what was really a very small amount of money.

I’m trying to get to the understanding of what the policy is. Is this Minister able to speak to the size and volume of the policy that could be at risk here? I’m asking the Minister of...

Setting that aside, if a company owes money, if they owe arrears to the Government of the Northwest Territories, I need to appreciate how long we sit on this lack of payments. If there are any, we don’t know. I should be fair about that, we just don’t seem to know. There was no answer on that one way or another, so it’s not clear. But how long do we sit in a process of arrears before the Government of the Northwest Territories takes action? So I’d like to know what the policy is on that, because if somebody isn’t making lease payments, then we should be asking ourselves, when do we take action...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to ask yet another question. I’ll have a question for one of the Ministers of this particular government. With that, I’ll decide. In all honesty, I have questions for the Minister of Transportation. I happen to be looking at the statement of claim made in the Ontario Superior Court about the plaintiff against Deepak International.

We don’t talk particularly about affairs before the courts due to the sub judice matter, but what’s particularly interesting of the situation is when I asked the Minister of ITI the other day about the cutting of diamonds...

I consider it a shame that the government isn’t playing a role in this and is not a partner. We have the Tulita On-the-Land Healing Program, headed by Bessa Blondin, Lawrence Neyelle, Dean Green and Margaret McDonald doing things, connecting with the youth, connecting with the elders and making programs on the land and connecting with the people who need help.

What is this Minister willing to do today, knowing that we have had the federal government and the Movember Foundation come forward to help? Where is our own government in our own backyard helping on this one? Is the Minister willing to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s certainly a pleasure to be able to ask some questions today, and I want to focus in on my Member’s statement. The Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness Healing Voices report was tabled almost two full years ago, and it had 67 recommendations in it. Some of them I thought were good. Some of them I thought were fantastic. But the point was about doing business differently. That’s what the key to me certainly was.

Recommendations one to four I will not read, but certainly the first four recommendations were based on community-based community goal...

No, Mr. Chairman, I was just double checking that we haven’t reached the point of conclusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off, it’s often tradition that we thank the mover and the seconder. I think it certainly deserves that in these circumstances. How they came up with the idea of a lobbyist registry I don’t know, but I think it’s a good one and certainly one that deserves exploring.

Just because we wouldn’t use it often doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be important, and just because you wouldn’t use it often doesn’t mean it couldn’t have a large impact. We’ve often heard about how the influences of lobbyists play on big contracts getting opportunities that most folks don’t know. We don’t...